Tomes of Terror

The Final Settling of Accounts

In the MU Administration building, Dean Arthur Clements rises from his desk and walks over to his safe and pulls out two large and aged books. With both tomes in his hands he walks over to the window and stares out over the campus as the students below who go about their daily business completely oblivious to their dean’s concerns. He sighs gently as he considers all the events that have occurred over the last five weeks following the break in and theft from the university library. Such a number of strange and chilling events have suddenly transpired all around town that he can’t but suspect that the thefts of the rare occult tomes had something to do with it all. Somehow, he feels in his bones that the locus of all the deaths, injuries, missing persons, abductions and explosions can all be traced back to the schemes of the thief or thieves, not that he’s much the wiser of the crime that occurred on his watch. The private detectives he had hired had skilfully traced one of the books to a local bookseller, but how and why this individual had come by the book in the first place still remains a mystery as the detectives had soon left stating that things had gotten too dangerous for them, whatever that meant. And as for the other recovered book, it was found in the hands of a law enforcement official whom he had never met and who had been driven quite mad by sights and sounds unknown. All the dean knew for sure was that the new security measures being installed in the Jeremiah Orne library would prevent any repeat occurrence of the thefts and that he was glad that he had at least gotten two of the books back – it could have been so much worse, although he can’t shake the feeling that danger still lurks somewhere out there in the form of the most expensive and notorious missing volume.

Elsewhere in the campus the English 301 course begins yet another lecture and Steven Woodman looks about the theatre and the many empty spaces around him. The absences which account for a third of the class include his best friend Chris Henson, who used to sit next to him. Stranger still, Chris is missing, presumed dead, and his weird girlfriend, Eve, and all her silly sorority girls who all recently boasted of being into witchcraft were all gone too. Even the lecturer had changed – Professor Fairbanks and his exuberant tales of banned books had been replaced by the far more sedate and traditional Professor Emery. Carl Munk still creeps around the campus late at night to spy on pretty girls and one day in the near future will be undoubtedly caught by the campus police – it will be the first steps in a tragic life of petty criminality and an eventual fatal encounter with some of Arkham’s inhuman night time denizens. Didier Melville continues to run M.U.C.K and maintains his crown as king of the nerds whilst being blissfully unaware of what has been occurring around town and still spreading utter nonsense about a non-existent Illuminati cult headed by the dean. Luke Dewer still holds his loud dorm parties and still maintains that he runs a satanic cult and boasts that much of what’s been going on about town is in fact his doing – something that always impresses the more gullible freshmen girls. Over in the accounts department Charlotte Spinks continues to embezzle funds from the university unbothered by events around town having never been approached by any of the many investigators, which is perhaps for the best, as she would have undoubtedly introduced them to her biker friends.

Eve Williams sits looking out of her mother’s living room window on a quiet suburban street in Brockton, a few hours away from Arkham. Heavily traumatised by her recent experiences with the dark forces of the mythos her condition will steadily worsen and she will become a recluse and a drop out, completely withdrawn from outside society. Several of her former friends and Kappa Delta Phi sorority girls are also hundreds of miles away from Arkham, cowering in the sanctuary of their family homes, tormented by the horrifying memories of the murder of an innocent business man that they witnessed and the vague shifting memories of summoned things that should not be that will forever haunt their dreams. The sorority house itself will remain boarded up and uninhabited for a couple of years before the university finally returns it to use and another set of unsuspecting girls set up home there.

Deep in the Miskatonic Valley things are looking a little brighter. Thanks to the visit of a Delta Green death squad the withdrawn and suspicious rural denizens of this backwards land no longer need to worry about the troublesome Childs and Dean clans nor do they have to concern themselves with the odious presence of the dire witch, Mother Willow. The plans of the backwater witch to summon a dread ambassador of Shub Niggurath and take over Arkham has been utterly thwarted by her unexpected transportation to a distant world surrounding a distant star.

Ebden Burns transported himself, Mother Willow and Les Cultes Des Goules to a planet orbiting a star in the constellation of Libra. Shortly after casting the spell all three materialised in a massive stone maze under the frozen planet’s surface. It was here that the Great Old One, Eihort, Lord of the Labyrinth, and his brood, have set up home having left the confines of Ebden’s ill-fated Arkham bookshop. Ebden drags a protesting Mother Willow to the centre of the maze where he offers her to his god; unfortunately for Ebden there is no way out of the bargain he has made with the alien god and he is doomed to his fate of madness and death. Mother Willow meanwhile, well versed in the occult and possessing sufficient mythos knowledge, recognises the futility of the offer being made to her by Eihort and refuses, calling on her own god to help her – sadly, the Black Goat of the Woods can do nothing to protect her disciple whilst she is in another god’s realm. Mother Willow meets an unpleasant end under the stumps of Eihort. The stolen book will remain lost in an alien maze for eons. Back on Earth, in Boston, the condition of the once bright and dashing Eagle Bond PI, Carl Paronuzzi, gets steadily worse until his fits of screaming and madness result in him being sectioned by the authorities – a short time after this twenty of Eihort’s brood emerge from within the demented man in a horrific birth that kills their host. His attendants open his cell in the morning to find the strange white creatures running around a pool of blood and pulped bone and gristle; all of these little critters are duly exterminated and several become samples at the CDC in Atlanta where scientists fruitlessly attempt to identify and classify this new species of deadly parasite.

Outside Chris Henson’s devastated house in the north-west of Arkham, Detective John Stubbs watches as two body bags are brought up from the excavated basement – he wonders idly if one of the bodies is that of the missing student. Things have been bizarre and far too busy recently for the seasoned career policeman and he knows well enough that in Arkham it pays not to question things too deeply or go prying into any dark corners; something that the Eagle Bond and the multi-agency task force should both have considered before coming to town and stirring up a such ruckus. Stubbs also knows that he has knowledge of only a portion of what’s been going on but he reasons that it just might be the most held by anyone alive less the perpetrators. The evidence clearly points to Professor Fairbanks having been involved in the theft of valuable and rare books from the university and it would seem that a couple of his students, Chris Henson and Eve Williams were also involved. He muses that at least the three of them were responsible for stealing and selling at least a couple of the books in the local community and that Ebden Burns had subsequently bought one or more of these stolen books. But with the books being worth in excess of half a million dollars it would seem that word of this had reached dangerous criminal elements, undoubtedly mob connected, who had mercilessly sought out to recover the books themselves and had not stopped short of murder and arson to cover their tracks. This theory explains almost everything that has occurred across town over the last five weeks – the two arsons, the storming of the Kappa Delta Phi sorority house and the multiple kidnappings from the hospital, mental health centre and the private residences on South Garrison Street; not to mention the deaths of the task force. He’s not sure exactly how it all ties in with the Drake siblings or the Professor’s violent death, along with a whole police search party, at the scene of some sort of satanic ritual in the hinterlands of New York State – perhaps the gangsters caught up with him out there and relieved him of the remaining books and then run into the boys in blue? Not that he’ll find out anytime soon since the crime scene isn’t in his jurisdiction. One thing Stubbs is completely unaware of however is the eight volumes of The Revelation of Glaaki currently sitting in the Arkham PD Evidence Room, quietly waiting for the day when a bored custody officer will peruse them.

In the land of Hyperborea, millions of years ago in Earth’s distant past, Ul-Hamouth the grand inquisitor of the Elk god Youndeh, enraged by the recent attempt on his life in his own home, arrives at the black tower with an army of over 300 men. They storm the granite structure and spend several hours defeating the golem guards at great loss of life only to find the place devoid of any human inhabitants. Meanwhile, on the distant stormy world of N’kai, the powerful sorcerer Eibon arrives via his summoning circle along with his retinue of faithful monks and his new apprentice, Chris Henson. The old mage smiles to himself; it’s true that he has lost his ancient home to his enemies and has been forced to flee but his plans to build an escape route to the world of his god, the mighty Tsathoggua, has been successfully realised. He is now safe to practice his dark arts unmolested, assisted by his young aide who has all but forgotten about his previous life in a place called Arkham in the 21st century.

As for Eagle Bond, Bryce Cavendish manages to struggle on for a few more months until the trauma of what he saw in the sorority house and guilt over Tricia’s death causes a short breakdown; eventually, after a period of time he commences a new less stressful career as an accountant. Dale Rutherford manages to mentally block all the disturbing occurrences and continues with the firm and buries the memories of Arkham one case at a time. Heather Mosby struggles to do the same and shortly leaves the firm to take up a degree course and is periodically plagued by strange monstrous dreams for the rest of her life. Malcolm Ashford’s widow and family continue to petition the authorities for an enquiry into his mysterious death in an Arkham bookshop basement but this never occurs and their doubts are never resolved.

Similar fates await the loved ones of the Delta Green team. No one in authority seems to know why a disparate collection of law enforcement officers of good standing suddenly converged on Arkham as part of a task force no one has heard of, much less why two of them met a fiery death in the basement of a well-to-do suburban house, or that one went missing from the hospital never to be seen again while a fourth now permanently resides in a mental health centre. No one connects the dots when a senior Treasury Department official, Colin Menthers, aka Bernard, is machine gunned outside his Milwaukee residents by assassins unknown (actually Adolf Lepus of the clandestine government agency, Majestic 12).

The mystery surrounding the Adirondack National Park Massacre will never be satisfactorily explained away and various rumours and conspiracy theories will be spread far and wide to explain the shooting death of a respectable Massachusetts’ University professor and the horribly mangled corpses of over fifteen policemen, their dogs and an Arkham Advertiser reporter at the scene of some sort of Satanic ceremony. Some of the broken remains of Fairbanks’ family and the abducted Brown family will eventually be found scattered wide throughout the dense forests of the park, far from the original scene. Condita manages to leave much of what happened behind her – convincing herself and the police that on that particular night she must have been drugged and hallucinating; and that what she saw and experienced could in no way be real. The three summoned Star-Spawn now quietly meander through the more remote valleys of the national park, far from prying eyes. The Necronomicon is seized from Tricia’s abandoned car and entered into evidence where it remains, forgotten, for years while the authorities fruitlessly try to get to the bottom of things.

Most fortunately for the residents of Arkham is that unbeknownst to them the demented plans of Professor Gregory Fairbanks have been scuttled by two reporters and the only member of Eagle Bond who stuck with the case throughout. The professor had taken his love of the secret and forbidden to a new level and with the assistance of the Drake family and his new followers had sought to revive and build up the extinct Cult of Cthulhu and assume the position of High Priest. Fairbanks was guided by dreams sent from his god who still slumbers beneath the ocean in R’lyeh; he sought to awaken great Cthulhu but fortunately for humanity, the stars are not yet right. Instead, had he not been stopped, he would have conducted a number of abductions and sacrifices resulting in a diminishing number of star spawn being summoned forth in great Cthulhu’s stead and left to loiter the dense and immense forests of the Adirondacks until called upon. A great disaster has been averted and Fairbanks did not have the time to leverage the terrifying power of the Necronomicon to make Arkham a very different place in tone and feel – its population will not suffer a drastic cull and its society will not now be infiltrated by cultists; Arkham will remain a vaguely sinister town with a dark secret at its heart but thanks to the actions of Lloyd, Condita and most of all, Tricia, normal everyday life will continue. For now.

The Calling

The trio travel deeper into the national park forest and into the night; they follow the directions they were given and turn off the main road and find themselves down a single dirt road. Twenty minutes down the road and they spot a vehicle parked up on the verge; they stop the car fifty feet away and cautiously get out. Preparing everything, night-vision capabilities and weapons – namely a 9mm handgun, a tyre iron and a pen knife; the three stealthily approach the van and quickly discern that it is the VW camper van that they have been seeking and as they get closer they see that a Honda Civic is also parked up just in front of the van. A quick check reveals both vehicles to be empty and Condita quickly immobilises both of them by stabbing the tyres with her knife. Looking around them they spot a small narrow path leading into the forest and as they approach it they see a disposable lighter lying on the ground.

The trio walk slowly and carefully down the path expecting an ambush. It’s now night, pitch black and the air is eerily silent and completely devoid of any animal noises. They push on and take several wrong turns that costs them valuable time; after retracing their steps a couple of times they finally spot a large white structure above the trees and make their way over to it where they discover a very old abandoned mill. All the mill’s windows are on the first floor and their glass panes long gone; the trio cautiously scout it out and eventually dare to enter through the open apertures. Inside they find nothing but rubbish and fifty year’s worth of graffiti which costs them even more time. They look about the grounds immediately around the old decaying structure and discover another narrow path leading further into the woods and Lloyd spots an object glinting in the grass which turns out to be a set of house keys and a Ford car key – they theorise that one of the hostages from South Garrison Street has left a trail.

At half nine at night they make their way down the new narrow dirt path and push on for ten minutes before they suddenly become aware of faint drumming and piping carrying on the night breeze. They keep moving forward and the sinister music becomes steadily louder and soon they discern a low glow of illumination when suddenly Tricia spots something that resembles a winged beast shoot up into the sky, some hundred yards away, clutching something screaming. Slightly shaken and expecting the worst they nonetheless push onwards to the source of the music and fire and the trees begin to steadily thin as another winged beast shoots up into the air, closer this time, and a human scream rends the night. They see, shaking with fear, that a clearing lies ahead of them – edging very slowly forward in almost single file, Tricia sees that the clearing is as big as half a football pitch and ringed with several ancient stone monoliths (as tall as a man) which contains a smaller ring of four monoliths. Within the smaller ring of four monoliths a small fire burns and a thick rolling black smoke tinged with glowing green phosphorescence hangs low and steadily builds. Beyond the ring a woman, Julia Brown, stands bound and screaming in utter terror, next to her stands a young boy crying uncontrollably – this is clearly one of Professor Fairbanks’ sons. Holding the two terrified sacrifices at bay are two robed figures wearing green and black patterned masks, and armed with knives. Behind this disturbing scene, some 10 yards further back, wearing much older robes and masks with tentacles, is a drummer playing a set of tom-toms and a smaller figure playing pan-pipes; next to them a figure holds a large ancient book and incants what sounds like a spell.

The scene before them is horrid and they realise that they are witnessing the late stages of a dark spell being cast. The group spend a couple of minutes trying to work out what to do and while doing so fail to spot the small weeping child being silently snatched up by another swooping winged creature; they know they must stop the spell from being completed but are under-armed and out-numbered; they know they must tread carefully lest they meet a deadly resistance. Finally they settle on a plan – Lloyd and Condita will set up the latter’s camera to emit a series of flashes on a timer while they hide behind nearby trees, ready to ambush the cultists when they come to investigate; Tricia, at the same time, will creep around the edge of the clearing until she is directly behind the musicians and the primary spell-caster with the intention of rushing as close as she can and taking them out with the only gun (she has a total of 34 rounds in two magazines).

Tricia sets off and a few moments later the camera goes off. The spell caster has moved slightly forward towards the one remaining sacrifice and does not notice the flashes, but the two musicians do and it successfully distracts them, allowing Tricia to break cover and start running across the clearing towards them. As she runs, her legs like jelly, she witnesses a black monstrosity with a long head resembling that of a decayed horse, and ant like carapace with large black wings, swoop down from the sky, and grab Julia Brown with its ragged talons. The Byahkhee just as quickly launches itself up into the night above with its prize just as the robed high priest reaches the end of the incantation. The black cloud within the smaller ring of monoliths begins to rapidly expand and contract and an intense green light swirls amidst its broiling vapours.

A mere 10 yards away from the back of the completely oblivious and otherwise pre-occupied high priest, Tricia comes to a stop, takes up a shooting stance and opens fire on the figure; of the ten shots fired rapidly, six find their mark and take the target down. She immediately turns and fires on the two shocked musicians who manage to duck and dive just in time to avoid being killed themselves. The flutist, a woman, produces a shiny silver revolver from underneath her black robes and fires at Tricia, but misses; as the PI returns fire in a panic her assailant is protected by the bullets by being brought down just in time by her companion. Lloyd and Condita realise that their plan to lure cultists towards them has failed and everything is going down right then and there in the clearing – they leave the safety of the trees and race out onto the clearing, heading directly for their endangered team mate. Sadly they are too late and witness a truly horrific sight – the female cultist roles on the ground and raises her gun again and quickly fires off three more shots at Tricia; while two of the shots are wide of the mark one lucky shot slams into the Eagle-Bond investigator’s head, killing her instantly. An enraged Lloyd is soon on top of them and knocks the murderer out cold with a swing of the tyre iron before bringing down her companion and beating him savagely to death.

While all this occurs a Star Spawn, freshly summoned from R’lyeh, suddenly materialises in the middle of the small ring of monoliths; the mind-bending sanity wrenching sight of which sends the two cultists who were guarding the sacrifices running for their lives in separate directions. Condita, who was running towards Tricia, was not as fast as Lloyd and fell behind; she too spots the star-spawn arrive and stops immediately in her tracks, her jaw opening in shock – moments later, as the black cloud continues to expand and contract a second star-spawn suddenly appears; this makes the photo journalist turn and run in similar vein to the cultists. The first star-spawn, as big as a two-storey house, spots the two fleeing figures below and begins to stomp towards them. The second creatures emits an earth-shaking bellow that finally grabs Lloyd’s attention; the journalist turns away from the pulped body of his victim and sees the two unearthly monsters near the small ring of monoliths and is frozen to the spot. A moment later he sees a third and final star-spawn arrive and the black cloud of broiling glowing smoke finally begins to disperse.

Condita and one of the cultists manage to reach the tree-line and plunge into the woods. The latter trips and falls and Condita turns just in time to see him being picked up and squashed by a curious star-spawn towering above. She screams and carries on running, blindly, deeper into the woods, followed by an extended straggling chain of giant alien monsters. Lloyd witnesses the three monsters leave the clearing and him behind as they follow the fleeing Condita. Lloyd walks over to Tricia’s corpse and finds the car keys and then walks over to the prone body of the high priest – removing the mask he finds that it is indeed Professor Gregory Fairbanks. Lloyd then picks up the large old book lying nearby and discovers that it is the much sought after fourth missing book – the Necronomicon. He then leaves the clearing, now littered with bodies, and manages to trace his way back through all the different paths all the way back to Tricia’s car. He starts the car up, makes a u-turn and drives out of the national park and stops only when he arrives at the first gas station beyond its limits. Hiding the Necronomicon under a car seat, he gets out and uses a pay phone to call the police. He tells them that shots have been fired and people have been killed. He agrees to wait for the police cruiser dispatched to meet him.

Condita continues to run deeper and deeper in to dark depths of the forest and stumbles upon a stream and makes a diversion along it which finally succeeds in shaking off her shambling pursuers. Exhausted, she still doesn’t dare stop and continues to stumble on into the night. Meanwhile the police arrive at the gas station where Lloyd is waiting. As they approach him they see that he is covered in blood and immediately detain him and place him in the back of their patrol car. They question him as to where the crime has occurred and he agrees to direct them back into the Adirondack Park. Thirty minutes later he is back at the abandoned VW camper van and Honda; more police shortly arrive including search dogs and a couple of detectives. Lloyd is taken out of the police car and is made to take them back to the clearing. The group of ten policemen get as far as the derelict mill before their dogs start to bark wildly which is shortly followed by the sounds of crashing trees as something huge stomps its way towards them. Shots and screams rend the night as the enraged star-spawn makes short work of them all and Lloyd meets a grizzly end.

In the early hours of the morning Condita finally emerges from the trees and stumbles upon a crossroad and spots a house. She bangs on the front door and an elderly man answers the door to the distressed photographer. She begs him to take her to the gas station at the entrance to the national park which he duly does. Once at the gas station Condita calls her boss, John Macrone and tells him she’s stranded, denying all knowledge of Lloyd’s whereabouts – he agrees to send a taxi out to her to fetch her back to Arkham. When she arrives back into town hours later she wastes no time; she returns to the motel, packs up and leaves, abandoning her job and everything associated with it and flees to her family home in Vermont.

A subsequent police party is dispatched to locate the first and find only mangled corpses and the remnants of what appears to be a satanic ceremony. Tricia’s car is recovered and the Necronomicon is interned in the Arkham PD Evidence Room where it remains and waits for the next curious reader.

Pursuit into the wilderness

Lloyd is still at the scene of whatever has transpired on South Garrison Street on Friday morning; using his journalistic skills he decides to question the various people milling around the cordon. Looking around he spots a hodge podge of locals and a couple of fellow journalists and a local TV crew. Going up to a young woman Lloyd learns that the second house being investigated by the police belongs to the Brown family, which consists of Julia, who’s a friendly and active member of the neighbourhood, her husband, Mark, who is a carpenter, and her 14 year old daughter, Tabitha. Another local who lives at the end of the street recounts that he saw a VW camper van and a grey Honda Civic parked out front of the Fairbanks and Brown houses early in the morning and that he saw a wiry looking man fleeing the latter before jumping into the van and both vehicles then sped away at high speed. Shortly she hears the local news team give a report that a suspected abduction has occurred on the street and that a casualty has been taken to hospital.

After putting down the phone from talking to Det Stubbs, Condita realises that perhaps it is best not to hang around the hospital reception. She observes an ambulance drive by without its sirens on which tells her that someone died on Fairbanks’ street. The police turn up and she high tails it out to her car and makes a conference call to Tricia and Lloyd. After learning the scant facts about what has happened on South Garrison Street Condita then makes an anonymous call to the Arkham PD and informs them that she’s seen the camper van and Honda Civic at Lucerne House.

Condita and Tricia meet up and head out to Lucerne House. The park up and skirt around the edge of the woods and observe that there are no apparent signs of life before venturing up to the house itself. Tricia calls Bryce Cavendish in Boston up and asks him to run a number of checks on her behalf including another phone tracker report, vehicle ownership report and CCTV camera footage. She then creeps up to the house and smashes a pane in the French window and lets herself in to the deserted house. At midday the disturbed PI checks every room in the house and discovers many minor things about Damon Drake and the inhabitants of the untidy and poorly maintained mansion – but in the upstairs tower room she finds scrawled notes of cryptic and foreign writing as well as occult symbols. Unfortunately, Tricia’s phobia of basements prevents her from checking that out so she has to summon Condita to the house to carry out the task. A short time later the two women observe an Arkham PD car pull up and that is their queue to flee from the building and into the woods. They eventually reach their car and drive back into town and to their motel where they collect up Lloyd who has a fruitless time trying to identify who the casualty from South Garrison Street is.

After a brief discussion the trio decide to attempt calling Professor Fairbanks again; Lloyd rings the number and after a couple of rings a somewhat creepy male voice answers – Lloyd tries bluffing the man on the phone by pretending to be from the university but fails to convince. The sinister man promises to find Lloyd and kill him before he hangs up. While the trio now wait for a call from Bryce over the searches and reports they requested they go through the notes that they recovered from Lucerne House and Condita, who has some archaeological knowledge, discerns that some of the strange symbols resemble writing but quite unlike any known culture or age – furthermore the symbols and writing seem to be the incantations for a spell. Tricia’s phone duly rings at 3pm and Bryce reports that the camper van and Honda Civic belong to Damon Drake and that the Polo is owned by Professor Gregory Fairbanks. The phone trace on Fairbanks’ cell phone shows that it is reported moving out of the north-west corner of Arkham and moving along the freeway towards New York State; the group quickly realises that the destination is in all probability the Adirondack national park.

Wasting no further time the trio gather all the equipment they think would be useful and jump into Tricia’s Aygo and head out of town and follow the route of the cell phone trace. Condita calls the Adirondack national park police department and tries to convince them that they need to stop Drake’s campervan and Civic; unfortunately the police aren’t interested in hearing such things from non-law enforcement sources. Condita refuses to be frustrated and then makes a call to Det Stubbs and once again reveals all – Stubbs says that as what’s going on is out of state there’s not a lot he can do but he will make enquiries. The Arkham Advertiser editor, John Macrone, calls and asks where his story is – guiltily Lloyd and Condita promise to send him the report via e-mail immediately and begin to construct it in the back of the car. A short time later, at 7.30pm, they reach the edge of the Adirondack national park and stop off at a gas station where the clerk reveals that he saw the camper van and Civic and that the strange duo that came into the store asked for directions to an old abandoned saw mill at a place called Graces Point. The trio jump back into their car and head into the park in the direction of the new location as night descends.

Behold Your New God!

Evelyn, half-crazy and unarmed, has little choice but to push on forward through the luminous plants. She spots more of the same creatures jumping and darting amongst the undergrowth and as she rushes forward into the dark unknown she bumps into something and is sent flying into a shallow puddle of filthy water; picking herself up she sees that she has fallen over what appears to be something resembling a giant mutant toad the size of a large dog. As she pushes ever further the density of the toad-like creatures increases in converse ratio to the plants which become steadily fewer. A sudden flash of intense lightening reveals the skyline to her left – she sees a mountain range of jagged peaks amidst which something large with pointed ears, as massive as a mountain itself, sits. With no other options left her the deranged FBI agent alters course and heads towards the disturbing scene on the horizon. As she battles through the sea of mutant toads something swoops down from the skies and lands before her – the winged monstrous creature is taller than a man, bearing numerous limbs and a myriad of eyes in a bulbous head. Still unarmed and unsure, Evelyn decides to skirt around the creature and as she does so another one, identical to the last, swoops down and blocks her path. Undeterred, she pushes on and avoids a steady stream of the winged beasts.

Finally, after several hours of arduous trekking, wading across a heap of seething amphibious bodies she arrives at the base of the mountain range. At the foot of the mountains, adored by the moving sea of toads, sits a giant furred form of a being that appears to be the cross between a bear, bat and toad – this is a sight that is so mind-bendingly alien and terrible that it takes the last of Evelyn’s slender sanity. The being’s eyes are closed and it appears to slumber, oblivious to all around it. Without any hope or alternative Evelyn sits amongst the sea of amphibians and uses the light of her cell phone to illuminate the occult book she still carries with her; she leafs through its pages and happens upon an illustration that closely resembles the massive being before her. Reading the ancient Latin text she learns that the being before her is a god known by the name Zathoquah; she spots what appears to be a complex prayer and spell of sacrifice in the name of the powerful alien being. For the next couple of hours Evelyn recites and learns the spell by rote; in order to cast the spell she must make a significant blood sacrifice and the abundance of mutant toads about her provide ample victims. With no readily available weapon at hand to use the FBI agent manages to improvise a bludgeon out of the canvas bag containing the sorcerer’s dyes. For the next twenty minutes she flails at the amphibian mass, injuring several and sending many fleeing in terror before she finally manages to land a significant and deadly effective blow. Shattering one of the toad’s skulls as she screams and sings the prayer of Zathoquah she is delighted to see one of the great god’s eyes lazily open and regard her with an intense stare that fills her with joyous terror and love and she feels the immensity of its power. Zathoquah, roused from his slothful slumber beholds the strange figure of a creature not of his design singing his praise and offering a blood sacrifice – pleased by this unexpected scene he deigns to bequeath his new worshipper a boon of power and a route home. Evelyn scans the horizon and spots a familiar and welcome violet glow in the distance; as the god slowly returns to its slumber the deranged Delta Green operative heads off in the direction of the glow, walking through the sea of toads and ignoring all other things.

Hours later she arrives at the source – a small lake of violet glowing water. Instinctively, she walks straight into the water and submerges herself in the liquid. She experiences an odd rushing sensation and when she emerges from the water she is no longer in the strange realm of the slothful god but is now standing in a dark dank cavern. Using the waning battery of her trusty cell phone, Evelyn emerges from the small pool and ventures forwards until she bumps into a steel ladder which leads upwards. She climbs and finds herself in the sewers – she finds a break in the wall and emerges into a large tunnel and heads off in the wrong direction. She wanders blindly through an endless maze of dark tunnels until she collapses to the floor; hours later she is fortunate to hear the sound of something in the distance – she calls out and footsteps make their way to her to reveal two shocked Arkham city sewer workers. An ambulance crew is summoned to treat the dehydrated crazed woman but when they attempt to remove the old looking tome from her grasp she turns violent and they are forced to sedate her and remove her to the hospital. When Evelyn next comes around she is in a straight jacket, in a padded cell, within the Arkham Mental Health Centre. She sits rocking backwards and forwards, laughing maniacally because she knows she has been blessed by the great Zathoquah; she no longer remembers who she is, where she is or what led her there.

It’s late at night on Thursday evening and Lloyd, Condita and Tricia are still at Lucerne House, conducting their stakeout. Condita delves through the garage and locates nails and spikes the tyres of the car she suspects belongs to Professor Fairbanks. Tricia who is close to the back French doors of the mansions wants to know what Damon was showing the men on the dining room table; so much so that she is prepared to take a great risk. She tries the back door and finds it unlocked; she pushes into the rear hallway and can hear the sounds of two of the men conversing in the lounge at the front. She slithers into the dining room and finds a large pocket map of the Adirondack National Park on the table; she attempts to fold it up in order to take it with her but manages to mess it up, making lots of noise which alerts some of the occupants to her presence – she turns and flees, unfolded map in hand and runs out through the back door, across the unkempt garden and into the woods. She frantically calls her compatriots and they arrange to meet back up at the car which they duly do; they then return to their motel and spend the whole night studying the stolen map for clues and online for a connection concerning the Adirondacks.

The next day Lloyd is woken from his slumber by a phone call from the editor of the Arkham Advertiser, John Macrone. He informs the freelance reporter that something is occurring on South Garrison Street – Police have cordoned off the road and Macrone wants Lloyd and Condita down there asap to find out the scoop. They take the Panda down the wrong direction and waste 10 mins before turning around and driving to the correct end of the street where they finally realise that they’ve been there before – it’s where Professor Fairbanks’ house is! The trio attempt to bluff their way through the cordon but the police are having none of it. Tricia sneaks into the adjacent street and trespasses through two gardens and into the rear of the house directly opposite the Professor’s. From her new vantage point she observes that both the Professor’s house and his neighbour to the right’s front doors are both open and policemen are coming and going; there is also a couple of ambulances present. Unfortunately for Tricia she was spotted crossing the gardens and the nearby police are notified and capture her; luckily she has left her firearm and ID in Lloyd’s car. Her phone is confiscated and she is taken to the cordon and ejected.

The trio talk briefly and Condita decides that she will head over to the hospital and wait for any casualties to be transported from South Garrison Street. Tricia’s brush with the law makes her decide to take herself back to the motel to continue researching the Adirondacks. Lloyd opts for staying put at the cordon and seeing what transpires; a short time later a crowd of gawkers and fellow journalists gather and an ambulance leaves the scene. At the hospital Condita calls Detective john Stubbs and unwisely begins to honestly answer all the seasoned investigator’s questions – she is informed that a squad car is being dispatched to take her down town to get her statement.

Stakeout

After having spent the previous night reading through Professor Fairbanks’ scribbled notes the two reporters and Tricia leave the motel in Lloyd’s Fiat Panda and head off to Lucerne House which is on the outskirts of town, to the north-west. Travelling further out the houses become less frequent and steadily larger as they drive through vast acreage belonging to Arkham’s wealthier families. When they finally reach the address indicated by the sat-nav they find their sight of the large white mansion obscured by a row of trees.

Pretending to be members of Arkham City Hall the trio boldly walk up to the large weary looking mansion, observing its poorly maintained lawns and a green VW camper van and grey Honda Civic parked in a side garage, and knock on the front door. A short time later a skittish woman answers and asks them their business; they tell her that they a conducting an electoral census to which the woman replies that her brother always handles that sort of thing – she duly fetches him and the irritated middle-aged man, forced from his bed, quickly sends the investigators packing when he instructs them to conduct their business via the post. Returning to their car the team are at a loss as to their next move and drive back into town and into a coffee house. Whilst their Tricia remembers one of her standard PI techniques and calls Bruce Cavendish up – she asks him to use the Eagle Bond system to pay for a cell phone location report on Professor Fairbanks’ cell phone; feeling guilty over having abandoned the case, Cavendish pays for the expedited service and has the report from the phone company within the hour. Calling Tricia back he is able to tell her that the Professor’s phone has been pinging off a tower in the north of Arkham for the last 48 hours, which is at odds with the reports of the Professor being away on conference in Atlanta. Tricia then tries ringing the Professor but only gets his answer phone.

Deducing that the Professor is in Lucerne House they visit a Wal-Mart and buy supplies for a stakeout and drive back out to the mansion and park a mile short. They split up with Tricia taking the rear of the property, Lloyd posting himself in the wood line to the right and Condita concealing herself in a ditch opposite the main entrance. By 1530 everyone is in position and is surveilling the property with binoculars or through camera lenses; looking at the rear of the house and the overgrown garden Tricia is able to easily discern the kitchen and dining room. She also spots that a hole has been dug at the edge of the garden at the foot of a tree – investigating it closer she sees that it too small to be a grave but it about three foot wide in all its dimensions. It takes Condita some time to realise that the VW camper van is missing and at 1600 she observes the skittish woman leave the house and jump into the Honda. Using their walkie-talkies the team is able to communicate the sight of Damon Drake entering the kitchen and an indiscernible man who repeatedly appears in the tower – a man who is sometimes seen holding a large book! They quickly realise that they must be dealing with at least four people inside the house. Tricia risks leopard crawling into the poorly kept garden to get a better view through the French windows – injuring herself on a discarded rake as she does so. Peering through the doors she observes that the interior is unkempt and in need of a good cleaning; there also appears to be a lot of cats on the premises. At 1830 the camper van returns and the investigators see that there are two men in it, one white and one black; the two men jump out of the van carrying boxes and are let into the house by Damon. Tricia sees the three men in the dining room and gets a good look at them – she doesn’t recognise either of the two men; and they seem to be looking at something that Damon is showing them on the dining room table. As it gets darker Lloyd ventures out from the wood line and creeps up to the house; he peers through the basement windows and uses his night vision enabled binoculars to peer inside and discovers more mess and ill-kept rooms. Not to be left out, Condita also risks breaking cover and scuttles onto the property and makes it over to the garage where she discovers a previously unnoticed third vehicle – a VW Polo.

Back in a strange land, Evelyn’s world suddenly turns an all-consuming violet hue as she walks through the sorcerer’s mirror. When her vision returns to her she is suddenly somewhere completely different. She is standing in what she believes to be the summoning circle that was described to her – it is a black stone circle surrounded by four stone pillars. She can see little else of the world she is in as it is night and a thunder storm rages violently in the heavens above – she notices that the air is much thinner and there is a pressure as if someone was pushing down on her shoulders. Wasting no time she sets about completing her new mission and paints out the sorcerer’s sigil within the summoning circle using the stone jars of red and yellow paint; she then uses her mobile phone to illuminate the pages of the book as she reads the Latin incantations. She feels the power building in the air about her as she performs the activation spell and as she reads the final passages the sorcerer’s sigil begins to burn luminous with a violet light. The half-insane FBI agent senses that she has successfully performed her task and waits for something else to happen – which it doesn’t; the sigil remains glowing and the thunder continues to peel mercilessly above. Wondering if she has missed something she reads the spell out again but realises that she has already expended all her magical energies.

There is now nothing left to do but explore her new realm in the hope of discovering the glowing pool that the sorcerer said would take her back to her own world. Stepping out of the summoning circle she finds that the ground consists of a black pumice stone that is covered sparsely with a lichen that is slightly grass like in quality. Pushing out into the blackness for a hundred metres Evelyn suddenly becomes aware of two points of a faint bluish glow which as she nears, reveals itself to belong to a bioluminescent plant that is growing in abundant patches before her. She continues through this mini-jungle of shoulder height plants which is clearly the source of her oxygen and is soon treading through irregular shallow pools of mud and water. As she continues to surveil her alien surroundings she detects something moving low in the near distance – she stops and observes it, but is doesn’t move again; but something else does to her left, closer. She realises with a sharp breath that something or somethings are out there with her and they are near.

Step Through The Mirror

The two reporters and Tricia exhaust their conversation with Miss Emery and head back to the motel to gather their thoughts – rechecking her Eagle Bond notes, Tricia realises that Professor Fairbanks is married to Alice Fairbanks and they have two young children – they also live a short distance away. The trio jump in a car and drive over to South Garrison Street where the Professor’s nondescript middle class suburban house sits. They approach the house, which has no cars parked out front, and knock on the door but there is no response; going into the back garden and peeking through the French windows reveals an orderly and well maintained household – Tricia investigates the mailbox and finds that only the day’s mail in present and it hasn’t been collected yet. With no one at home they decide to knock on the neighbours’ doors; Condita tries the house to the left and the door is answered by a cautious middle-aged woman who tells her that she saw Alice Fairbanks yesterday evening. Tricia has a bit more luck when he calls on the house on the right which is also answered by a middle-aged woman, but one who is more forth-coming and friendly – the neighbour reveals that she has spoken to Alice recently and that the Professor is currently away on a conference.

It becomes clear to the investigators at this point that the professor isn’t around and that it is probably best to gather further information about him and to follow up on the Steve Woodman lead they obtained the day before. Condita tries to call Didier a couple of times but is unable to reach the spyhunter. She does however manage to get hold of the creepy Carl Munk – unfortunately the nocturnal creeper is unable to offer much light on either the professor or Woodman. Finally Condita manages to get into contact with Didier – the computer genius is able to check the university network and tell the investigators that the next English class for 301 (which Woodman is a part of) is at half two in the afternoon in lecture hall number 2. The trio head back over to the English Department building and wait outside the lecture hall; the first person to turn up is however, Miss Emery, who is perplexed to find her recent three strange visitors waiting there. Fortunately the group is able to convince Fairbanks’ stand-in that they are all genuinely interested in seeing an English Lit lecture with a view to enrolling. They are allowed to enter the hall and attend the lecture on the understanding that they can only attend; shortly after they observe Steve Woodman turn up slightly late. After the lecture Steve leaves the hall and Lloyd and Tricia rush of out after him; Condita takes one for the team by staying behind to discuss the lecture with Miss Emery. Outside Lloyd manages to catch up with Steve and convince him to submit to an interview for a newspaper article; Steve leads them to the Student Union where he answers the two investigators’ questions. Woodman reveals that Professor Fairbanks has been missing from his own classes for the last week and has generally been late for most lectures and at odds with his usual chirpy self. He also reveals that Chris Henson was a very kind hearted and genuine jock who had also become strangely detached and obsessed with one of the old books in the restricted section. Woodman had little time for Chris’ girlfriend, Eve Williams, who he saw as a pretender and a wannabe.

Later that evening the investigators return to Fairbanks’ house and Lloyd knocks on the front door. Alice Fairbanks answers and Lloyd manages to successfully pass himself off as a new colleague of Gregory Fairbanks. He says that Gregory was supposed to pass him some material prior to going off on conference. Alice invites him into the house where he observes the two boys playing a games console in the living room. After some brief chit chat in which Alice reveals that Gregory is currently in Atlanta, Georgia until Sunday, and that he has been behaving slightly odd over the last few weeks – often spending all evening and much of the small hours locked away in his study Lloyd asks to see the study under the pretext that he suspects that the material he is seeking to have been left there – this seems perfectly reasonable to Alice and she leads the undercover reporter upstairs to a small study which has many of its surfaces littered with loose paper sheets, many of which have been screwed up. Lloyd wisely declares that the notes are what he’s been looking for and collects them all up in a bag before leaving with them.

The trio return to the motel and spend the rest of the Wednesday evening going through the bag of notes. They quickly discover that most of them appear to be copies from an occult book, bearing latin and arabic writing and occult symbols – in all likelihood the notes have come from the Necronomicon. They also find a piece of paper that bears the address of a Damon Drake. It is at a place called Lucerne House and appears to be in Arkham.

Fleeing for her life with a stolen mirror, Evelyn runs down a series of winding alleyways in the company of the sorcerer’s monks. They manage to lead her safely out of the city and into the grass lands beyond just as the city guard seal the large gates. They rejoin with the golem they left here and the four of them, with cart and mirror head back on the long and arduous journey back to the black tower. Along the route they observe a disturbance in the nearby jungle before a group of hideous hairy yeti-like creatures emerge and make their way towards the group. The monks tell Evelyn that these creatures are the ferocious Voormis and instruct her to keep pushing the cart while instructing the golem to head the creatures off and handle them. The last sight of the golem is of it swinging away and firing a flame flute before it is overwhelmed by a swarm of the furry monsters. The golem’s sacrifice means that the rest of the group manage to make it to the black tower just before dusk. The FBI agent is so tired that she once again fails to observe the large statue standing in the centre of the tower’s lobby.

After a night of dreamless sleep due to extreme exhaustion Evelyn is taken back up to the sorcerer’s thrown room where he appears to be busy studying some of the numerous stone tablets he has on display there. The FBI agent observes that the mirror she took from Cerngoth is now mounted on a stone plinth at the back of the room. Chris Henson is sat on a nearby bench wistfully playing with a small pet lizard. The sorcerer eventually turns his attention to the half-mad Evelyn and congratulates her for retrieving his mirror; he does however point out that she failed to give the box to the grand inquisitor who is now angry that an assassination attempt has been made against him and is now probably on his way to the black tower with an army. The sorcerer instructs Evelyn that she is to carry out a new task for him unless she wants to be killed. He tells her that he will send her to the land of his god and that once there she is to paint his sigil in the summoning circle and use the Liber Ivonis (which he gives her there and then) to cast an incantation that will activate the portal. Evelyn’s grip on reality is slipping but she has enough wits about her to ask how she will get back to her own world. The sorcerer tells her that a nearby glowing pond is a route back to her world; he then departs to make the preparations for the transportation ceremony. While left to her own devices in the sorcerer’s room Evelyn decides to talk to Chris and tries to learn the circumstances of what happened in Arkham and the theft of the books. It becomes apparent that Chris has no intention of returning to his old life and instead wants to remain in the company of the sorcerer and become his apprentice. He tells Evelyn that he fell under the spell of the Liber Ivonis from handling some stone fragments that were stored in the Restricted Section. He does not know anything about the Necronomicon other than that Professor Fairbanks often showcased the book in lectures.

Later that day Evelyn is taken down into a large chamber underground, beneath the black tower. The room is a large circular room with an altar and the mirror placed in the middle. A congregation of monks begin to chant while the sorcerer starts to perform a spell. To Evelyn’s horror a procession of monks willing take their turn to lay on the altar while the sorcerer sacrifices them with a ceremonial blade – a scene that costs her dear in sanity; While this occurs the mirror grows steadily violet – with all six monks sacrificed and the portal activated the sorcerer commands Evelyn to step into the mirror, which she duly does.

Suddenly all becomes clear

Evelyn is in the large kitchen with the Grand Inquisitor’s house steward, Bey-Lor. After an attempt to understand the strangely garbed visitor from Boston, the house steward has her seated and provided with a meal while he disappears and discusses her with the other parties of the household. After a splendid meal Evelyn is taken to the main room of the large mansion to meet the master of the house. The Grand Inquisitor, Ul-Hamoth, asks a number of questions of Evelyn – he clearly has never heard of any place called Bost-on, or of a strange land called You Ess Ay; worse still, Evelyn is very vague about the god she worships, stating that he has no name and no form. It’s the Grand Inquisitor’s job to find and condemn any heretic who does not worship Youndeh the Elk god. With vague accounts given to all his questions the elderly nobleman smells a rat and instructs his house guards to seize and search the strange woman. Going through her clothes and pockets they find her gun, although they have no idea what it is; they also find the protective magical pendant around her neck – this is proof of her involvement in arcane and dark arts. Searching further one of the guards finds the small metal box the sorcerer in the black tower had instructed her to give to the Grand Inquisitor. When asked what it is Evelyn states that it is a gift – but the nobleman is too cautious and instructs the guard to open the box, which he duly does. Inside is a purple stone that suddenly bursts into life and emits a powerful aura that envelopes the hapless guard and shrivels him up into a desiccated corpse in front of the room’s horrified eyes. Evelyn seizes her chance and while everyone is in a state of shock she springs forward and snatches back the protective pendant – the Grand Inquisitor, realising the assassination attempt for what it is, turns and flees, closely followed by his wife and teenage daughter. Evelyn sprints after them, closely followed by the second guard who has his stone dagger drawn; the FBI agent has only a moment of lead time and grabs a hold of the teenage daughter and pulls out the only thing left in her possession – her mobile phone! Pressing buttons randomly to create weird noises, she holds it to the young girl’s throat and threatens to kill her – which stops the guard in his tracks; Evelyn then pushes her hostage into the guard and sends them both sprawling – she then turns and runs out of the room, through an ante chamber and into the main hall where she has several options before her.

With no firm plan in her mind and a realisation that the sorcerer in the black tower will kill her if she returns without the mirror, she decides that her only option is to pursue the grand Inquisitor up the grand stone steps up to the second floor and into a large spacious bedroom. She grabs him at his bed and holds the phone menacingly at his throat; unfortunately, the other guard, who is hot on her tail, is so fearful for his master’s safety that he launches himself at the FBI agent and delivers what would normally have been a death blow with his dagger – but the magical pendant does its job and the stone blade shatters before in can penetrate her sternum; the pendant’s power, however, in now spent and it will no longer prevent her from physical harm. The guard falls to the floor and a brief scuffle ensues while the Grand Inquisitor flees the room with his wife and they race back down stairs and into the main room where the majority of the household now are. Evelyn manages to escape the clutches of the guard and also makes it out of the room. Unsure of what to do she refuses to leave empty handed and instead investigates a doorway that leads further into the house. She is rewarded with discovering the nobleman’s study, which happens to contain the object of her mission – the sorcerer’s mirror. Seizing the strangely carved violet mirror she drags it to the front lobby where she can hear the commotion of raised voice and people running; she determines that the risk of crossing the lobby to get over to the large front doors is too great and so heads back into the study and locates another doorway at the rear of that room. Peeking through the doorway curtains she spots two differently dressed guards running down the hall, led by a house servant – clearly the city guard has been summoned!

Unarmed, and with time running out fast, Evelyn decides that she has no option but to try to sneak out via the kitchen entrance. She steps out into hallway, lugging the large mirror with her. Before she can enter the kitchen another member of the city guard rushes through and comes to a sudden shocked halt at the sight of the strangely garbed woman clutching the large mirror; Evelyn has a fraction of a second to react – her mind racing she once again relies on her phone for subterfuge. Evelyn points her mobile phone at the city guard and threatens to vaporise him; the guard is terrified by the frightening bleeping device in the stranger’s hands and backs away into the kitchen. Evelyn picks up the mirror and shuffles forward into the kitchen and issues deadly threats at the terrified kitchen staff. Finally exiting the house through the side entrance she shuffles along the veranda still clutching the large mirror and makes it down the main flight of stairs to the street bellow. More guards, city and household, spring out from the Grand Inquisitor’s palace and come racing down the steps and across the street towards Evelyn – things look dire indeed for the unarmed FBI agent. Then, the two monks who had escorted her to the strange and terrifying city appear from a corner and one of them pulls out a flame flute and proceeds to cut all four guards into two with an intense flame beam – an awful site that cost’s Evelyn even more of her cracking sanity. The immediate threat dealt with, she is given robes to put on over her clothes and is instructed to place the mirror on a cart and the trio escape down an alley way with their prize.

Back in Arkham, the two reporters and Tricia decide that they have learned as much as they can from Desmond Mitchell’s widow and head back to the motel to formulate their next plan of action. After taking stock of the situation and all the things they have discovered to date they come to a natural dead end – three of the four missing books have been accounted for, even if two have not been recovered; the pressing question is what has happened to the fourth book, the most precious of all – The Necronomicon. Thinking things through further they believe that their next move should be to interview Eve Williams, who appears to have been at the centre of the thefts. They then make a bungled attempt to obtain contact details for Eve direct from the university; but it turns out that the administration has no interest in talking to the press. Tricia then recalls that she has Eve’s phone number and is fortunate enough to find that the ex-coven leader actually answers.

Eve reveals that she has returned home to her parents in Brockton, MA; she is reticent to be involved in any of the recent dark occurrences, even if it just talking about them – but after being reminded by Tricia how much she has been helped and how much she owes, she eventually relents and agrees to be interviewed. The trio drive over to Brockton and enter Eve’s parent’s house after the mom has popped out. Eve is doing her best to put recent events behind her and tells the reporters that she doesn’t want to relive recent terrible events and will only tell them the story and answer questions this one final time. Lloyd recounts some of what they know, principally that Eve stole the books – Eve then reveals the full extent of the plan and who was involved. A chance meeting with Ebden in the MU library where Eve worked as a student assistant led them to realising that they both wanted to get their hands on particular books held in the Restricted Section; they then co-opted Chris, Eve’s boyfriend to steal the key and made a copy – during a subsequent library staff meeting Ebden strolled in and helped himself to three books (the third, the Livre Ivonis, was requested by Chris). Eve reveals why she wanted to take Les Cultes Des Goules and her connection with Mother Willow, Ebden’s interested in obtaining the full set of The Revelations of Glaaki and Chris’s strange interest in stone fragments and the Book of Eibon. She categorically states that they only took three books and not four. Tricia realises that someone has taken advantage of the theft to make away with the Necronomicon; this fact then inspires Condita to ask who showed an interest in that particular occult tome. Eve tells them no-one, as Professor Fairbanks always kept it in his possession and spent much of his time talking about the history of that particular book!

The trio head back to Arkham satisfied that they have a requirement to speak with Professor Fairbanks first thing in the morning. When morning comes they head straight over to the university and Tricia is able to lead them to Fairbank’s office in the English Department. Unfortunately they find a strange woman there and no sign of the professor; knocking on the door Miss Emery introduces herself and invites the three strangers to sit down. They ask her where Fairbanks is and she informs them that he is on a leave of absence and that she is his stand in.

Tick, tick, tick!

Lloyd and Condita continue their questioning of Bryce Cavendish concerning the recent Eagle Bond investigation into the stolen occult tomes from Miskatonic University. They acquire a better understanding of what occurred recently in Arkham and they also acquired contact details for Tricia Dano. They duly give Tricia a call and the disturbed investigator who it turns out is determined to get to the bottom of weird events that have turned her world upside down, races over to the motel to meet up with the two reporters. Once back in Arkham she recounts her own unsettling experiences and beliefs; Lloyd and Condita do not know what to make of the oddly behaved and paranoid ex-PI. Tricia does have enough wits about to know that first thing in the morning she will head over to Walmart and secure supplies in order to disguise herself in order to avoid recognition by the town police.

The next action that the two reporters decide to take is to contact the second confidential source provided to them by the Arkham Advertiser editor – Arkham PD Detective John Stubbs. They call Stubbs who agrees to meet with them provided they have the greenbacks to furnish him with. They meet him at his usual haunt, a dingy Rivertown bar – The Grotto. Once there Stubbs demands a $500 for his insider information and after much dithering and debate Condita decides that the information is worth paying for out of her own funds. Whilst casually drinking his pitcher of beer Stubbs provides an account of the two different investigations that have occurred in town and to his way of thinking he suspects that it’s the outside law enforcement interference that’s stirred things up around town and led to the recent spate of fires , explosions and hospital admissions. He also confirms that Chris Henson is currently unaccounted for and presumed dead; his parents, who were away on a world cruise are currently flying back. Stubbs believes that the DG team deliberately blew up the Henson’s house and that everything is linked to teenage/student drug taking, heavy metal music and devil worship. He also mentions that a local businessman has been reported missing and was last seen in the company of a group of young females believed to be MU students; bloodstains found in the basement of the Kappa Delta Phi sorority house match the DNA of the missing man. The reporters repeatedly show their greenness and the fact that that they are out-of-towners – Stubbs takes great delight in pointing out the errors in their suppositions such as pointing out that Dean Clements is an African American and therefore highly unlikely to be the leader of the Illuminati cult as detailed by Didier Melville.

Once Lloyd and Condita return to the motel they show their notes to Tricia (who is now crashing with them) and she quickly points out the discrepancies in all the different accounts they have thus far heard, including debunking Stubbs belief that DG triggered the explosion at the Henson house.

The next morning Tricia, who experienced a night bedevilled with weird unearthly dreams, heads of to Walmart to secure her supplies. The two reporters decide to pay Carl Munk a visit (having heard about him from Bryce Cavendish); they phone him up and convince him to meet them at the McBurgers restaurant in town at 10am. At the meet up Condita quickly becomes agitated by the pervy young student’s obtrusive staring at her assets; Lloyd powers through with the questioning and is given the names of Madison Lynn and Melissa Hackman. When pressed about the two people Eagle Bond asked Carl to keep an eye on for them the night stalker gives a candid account of Luke Dewer, who he believes to be a bad and dangerous sort into black magic and the much more respectable and widely liked well to do Steve Woodman, who just so happens to have been Chris Henson’s best friend. Carl also provides some background on Eve Williams and her witch coven.

Next on the two reporters’ list is a visit to Chris Henson’s house. The devastated remains are still cordoned off so they decide to start knocking on the neighbours’ doors in order to get an account of recent events. They duly visit several houses but what quickly becomes clear is that no one can give a detailed account of events that dramatic night; in fact, everyone only become aware something was happening when he police and fire department started to hammer on their doors. After leaving with very little learned and a very strange feeling about what they’ve heard they opt to visit the widow of the disappeared local businessman – Desmond Mitchell.

Arriving outside Mitchell’s non-descript middle class house in a quiet suburb of Arkham the business man’s suffering widow, Margaret, provides a sorrowful account of recent events concerning her husband’s sudden disappearance; a couple of days ago the police confirmed the DNA sample found in the Kappa Delta Phi basement. The story and all the other very weird accounts heard over the last two days have a dramatic effect on Lloyd and he suddenly feels a deep chill in his bones and is near driven to madness by the overbearing and incessant ticking of a grandfather clock.

New Missions

Tricia is in full flight and heads off deep into the back woods and doesn’t stop running for forty minutes, by which time she is disorientated and somewhat lost. She repeatedly attempts to locate the highway that she knows is nearby and which will provide her with an easy means to navigate back into town, but try as she might, she only succeeds in getting lost even deeper in the dense forest. After several hours of trudging through the trees she finally decides to give in to her exhaustion and sleep rough under the stars. Come the morning she resumes her search for the road and eventually manages to locate it and flag down a passing motorist, who agrees to drive her the 18 miles (!) back to Arkham. Once back in town she attempts to return to Chris Henson’s house but is unable to make it past the police cordon. With nothing else to do she returns to the motel and discovers that Eve has gone. Later that day she looks out the window in time to see a police cruiser pull up, followed shortly after by Detective John Stubbs. The wearied detective duly knocks on the door and is somewhat surprised to find Tricia there; he quickly tells her to pack her bags and arranges for a police escort to the bus station where she duly catches a bus back to Boston and her home.

Eric, following the dramatic events at Chris Henson’s house, is transported to Arkham general hospital where he receives medical treatment to his critical injuries. He wakes up the next morning to find himself handcuffed to the bed and with a policeman posted outside his room; John Stubbs comes in and informs Eric that he’s royally messed up and contravened his warning. Shortly after Eric’s CIA boss turns up and asks the injured investigator what on earth is going on – and Eric reveals that he is part of a clandestine organisation known as Delta Green; things quickly begin to look grim for Eric as he is informed that he is suspended pending an investigation. But before the slow and relentless wheels of justice can begin to turn events take a more immediate and serious turn; four mysterious men appear in his room that night and taser him, release him from the cuffs before applying cable ties of their own. The disgraced CIA analyst is taken from his room, past the unconscious body of his police guard, out of a side door and bundled into a waiting van. For the next three hours he endures a mystery journey as he is spirited away into the night. Midway the van leaves the road and for the rest of the journey it is a bumpy ride down a long country road. When the van finally stops he finds himself at a modern farm; he is rough-handled down into one of the building’s basements and placed in a small room. Shortly after a rather dangerous-looking older man with a cadaverous grin enters the room and begins to question Eric; the man knows Eric’s real name and the fact that he is part of Delta Green and is interested to know everything about his team members and handler, Bernard. Eric, coerced by threats and taser blasts, decides that he has no option but to confess and reveal everything he knows about Delta Green. The mysterious man thanks Eric for his honesty before the ex-CIA operative is permanently retired by a bullet to the head by one of his abductors; his body is then dismembered and fed to the pigs.

Evelyn flies up the stone steps, and finds herself faced by a closed wooden door with two stone statues standing on either side. Aware that she is potentially being pursued by the guards below she races over to the closed door only to be grasped by the arm by one of the statues, which has seemingly come to life. The stone monstrosity utters a single word and the FBI agent realises she is being instructed to stop. As the guards from the floor below catch up she is taken by the living statue, or golem, further up into the building. She finds herself in what appears to be a cross between a throne room, a laboratory and a study; the room is ringed with large opaque windows, possesses stone pedestals bearing carved tablets and is populated with more monk-like figures. At the centre of the room, before a grand throne stands an imposing figure of a man in fine robes, a jewelled metal crown on his head and a rod in his hand; next to him, sitting on a stone bench, is Chris Henson. The older man holds a glowing yellow stone in his right hand which seems to translate his words to Evelyn; he orders her searched and marvels at her gun and phone, which he asks Chris to explain to him. Evelyn attempts to deceive the authoritative man but he easily sees through her deceptions and informs her that she has meddled in his plans and is now indebted to him. He has a task for her and informs the investigator that if she fails him in fulfilling the mission there will be nowhere in time and space safe from his vengeance. He instructs her to travel to the nearby city of Cerngoth and to seek out Ul-Hamouth, an inquisitor of a rival religion who has been persecuting the followers of the old gods. Once located, Evelyn is to give the inquisitor a small golden box which will incapacitate him; she is then to search the house for a large mirror and hand it over to her escorts. Evelyn, with little choice, agrees to the arrangement and after a night’s sleep is escorted out from the ominous five sided black tower by two monks and a golem. The walk for the best part of the day, during which Evelyn notes the intense heat and increased oxygen in the air about her. They cross grassland and low foothills until they finally see the majestic spires of a walled city in the distance. The group, minus the golem, enter the city through a guarded main gate and Evelyn beholds the strange denizens, who all appear to be human, dressed in unfamiliar robes; she witnesses the presence of beggars, street performers, traders and aristocracy. The guiding monks point out Ul-Hamouth’s palatial home in the middle of a central street and depart, informing her that they will be close by and will reappear within an hour. As per the plan, Evelyn loiters in the street outside the inquisitor’s house; it is not long before her strange and alien garb attracts the attention of passersby and a couple of them become alarmed when she is not forthcoming in identifying her origins or her gods. Fortunately for the FBI agent, a helpful stranger interjects before the city guards can be called and guides her into Ul-Hamouth’s house via a side entrance; once inside he reveals himself to be Bey-Lor, the inquisitor’s Head Steward.

Meanwhile, back in Arkham, Lloyd Honeywell and Condita Gonzalez are sat in John Macrone’s office; he is the editor of the Arkham Advertiser. He informs the freelance reporter and photographer that he has heard a number of strange reports concerning odd goings on about town, including the burning down of a bookshop, the abduction of a business man, unexplained events at a sorority house and an explosion in a wealthy suburb. Smelling an exclusive story and big headlines, he wants the duo to find a common link between all the recent events; he gives the pair the names and contact details of the two confidential sources that have provided the most information to date on all the happenings. The investigators get in touch with one of the sources, Didier Melville (a student at MU who was well known to the Eagle Bond investigators), and arrange to meet him in the local library that evening. Once they turn up at the super hush-hush clandestine meeting, Didier regales them with his knowledge of Eve Williams’ coven and the Dean’s Illuminati, the latter whom has stolen the books from his own library for financial gain; he offers the assistance of himself and the other members of M.U.C.K in getting to the bottom of the conspiracy and cults. Before departing he gives Honeywell Bryce Cavendish’s business card and explains that a number of law enforcement and detective agencies have already been involved in the case. Honeywell and Gonzalez duly call Bryce and the Eagle Bond investigator, who has been shaken up by his recent experiences and who has only just returned to work reveals that one of the missing books has already been recovered and returned to Dean Clements.

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more!"

The investigators set about checking the house from top to bottom. First place visited by Tricia is the attic but there’s nothing out of the ordinary there. Evelyn checks out one of the bedrooms and discovers that it is a hobby room and art studio, packed with sketches and craft works. Eric stands on guard on the stairs where he is able to keep an eye on both floors. Not wanting to abandon his team and the work, Earl manages to hastily patch himself up, inject himself with pain killers and create a Molotov cocktail as well as arm himself with frag and phosphorous grenades; he enters the house through the front door and decides to guard the entrance way.

Tricia and Evelyn enter the last of the upstairs rooms and find themselves in a study; to an observant viewer it would become clear that the numerous items that had been left scattered in the main bedroom had in fact originally come from the study. Now, however, the room is filled with clay tablets written in a strange type of cuneiform, papers with runes and strange scribbles; all the walls bear strange Mycenaean style symbols. Chris is stood studying a book which appears to be an occult tome, with his back to the two investigators; Tricia moves close to him and makes an attempt to communicate with him but the athletics student seems oblivious of the investigators’ presence and he suddenly turns and walks out of the room holding the book and clutching a stone flute. Tricia notices as Chris turns that he is wearing a strange looking metallic necklace with a pulsating purple amethyst. The entranced student leaves the room and heads down the stairs towards Eric.

The CIA operative quickly contemplates his options and decides to try and trip Chris up but fails miserably as he is knocked aside and falls down to the bottom of the steps in a heap. Chris continues at the same leisured pace and finds his passage blocked by Ethan. The injured and dosed up DEA agent is put on the spot and acts in panic, trying to shoot Chris, but the safety catch of his pistol is still on and he too is brushed aside as Chris turns and opens the basement door and disappears down the darkened steps. Evelyn gives hot pursuit while Tricia experiences something of a mental relapse following her earlier trauma; the latter decides that she will not follow the danger and instead will do her bit by destroying all the occult items and articles that fill the study. Evelyn, the FBI agent, runs down the main stairs and leads the way down into the basement, hitting the light switch as she does so; Earl and Eric follow. Edward meanwhile, back in the van, begins to experience severe interference on the camera feeds and audio and decides that he too will head in to see what’s going on for himself.

When Evelyn and her two colleagues reach the bottom of the basement stairs they observe that the cellar room is large and long, filled with planks of wood piled up on the left hand side, several bags of cement on the right, an electric generator with four jerry cans of fuel and a pneumatic drill. To the right, not far from the stairs is a large ragged hole dug into the side of the concrete wall and floor while at the far end of the room there is a large dry clay doorway rendered in an unknown ancient, slightly Mycenaean style, complete with triangular pediment bearing an ornate all-seeing eye crest in the middle; the central portion of this “doorway” is a flat sheet of pulsating purple light that is reminiscent of the strange pendant currently being worn by Chris. The student is walking straight towards the supernatural doorway and Evelyn sprints after him while Earl limps lamely behind; Eric, feeling overwhelmed, hangs back under the pretence of keeping guard. Evelyn manages to catch up to Chris and slams into his back which makes him drop the book; from the floor, Evelyn dives for it but misses. Chris bends down and picks the book up and as he does so Eric shoots him – but it appears that Chris’ odd pendant is protecting him as he is unhurt. He does however, drop the book again and this time Evelyn manages to fling herself on it. In response to the attack, Chris levels the stone flute he is holding at Eric and a white hot beam of fire burns a hole into the staircase where the CIA agent was standing only seconds before. Chris then levels the flute at Evelyn who is still on the floor – he also utters a strange command and a pool of black oil-like substance coalesces by the side of the wooden planks and forms into a vertical column. Eric is horrified by the sight and fire half a magazine of his pistol at the unearthly creature; a couple of shots hit their mark but with no effect while a stray shot clips Earl just as he is about to close in on Chris. The next second the terrifying monster is flick-flacking across the floor towards Chris just as Edward reaches the bottom of the steps. The bizarre viscous life form swipes at the Delta Green team lead with a whip-like tendril before arching like a cobra and enveloping Eric. Edward struggles vainly to free his fellow investigator as the creature smothers and constricts him. Earl, writhing on the floor, seeing this terrible sight, manages to fish out his Molotov cocktail and with excellent precision throws it, unlit, at the black liquid monstrosity, covering it in meths. With great reflexes, Edward aims down at the floor and fires a rapid succession of shots and manages to ignite the alcohol. In the next instant the creature erupts in flames and just as quickly it propels itself up to the ceiling, releasing Eric just before he was about to expire. The badly wounded CIA man, who is now perilously close to dying, seizes the moment and flees, desperately scrambling up the stairs and bolting out of the house – he throws himself into the back of the van and slams the doors shut behind him.

In the split seconds it takes for all this to transpire, Evelyn dives through Chris legs and roles, but the student just turns and points the flute at her – she too is close to being scorched to death in an instant. Sensing the precarious edge of her existence, Evelyn surrenders the book and backs away. Chris, wordlessly bends down, picks it up and turns to the portal and steps through it before anyone can do anything about it. Edward charges across the room over to the generator and seizes two jerry cans at the same time as the black ichor creature drops back to the floor, its flames extinguished, and it spins fluidly across the room over towards the team lead. Edward tries to dodge it but it’s too fast; the next second it has swallowed him, jerry cans and all. In that desperate moment to save all their lives Earl realises that while fists and bullets are useless against the creature, fire is an effective weapon and he has the phosphorous grenade at his disposal. With his dexterity and condition so poor he lobs the grenade over to Evelyn who adeptly pulls the pin and throws it with superb accuracy at the foot of the beast. The grenade detonates in a brilliant flash of white heat that bathes the creature, the generator and the two remaining jerry cans in brilliant fire; all too late Earl and Evelyn realise their mistake and they both make a last ditch dash for the portal behind them. As the four jerry cans’ worth of petrol explode in a powerful all-consuming conflagration Evelyn is able to dive, football goal-keeper like, through the purple doorway while unfortunately, Earl’s much degraded physical state means he is too slow to reach safety. The basement explodes in a sea of fire that evaporates the unearthly creature, Edward and Earl.

Tricia, who is still upstairs in the study destroying much of the evidence feels the building shake as the explosion rips through it. Giving in to her instincts she flees the building in blind panic and heads screaming into the woods beyond, just as the awful tree-monster had only a short time before. Eric, who is barely alive himself, becomes aware of a bright intense light and heat looming over him and he exits the van to find the house a blazing inferno. He manages to make a call through to emergency services and hail medical assistance for himself but neglects to request a fire engine or two. Shortly an ambulance and its horrified crew turn up; they call for fire department assistance and back up while trying to drag Eric into the vehicle just as the anti-tank missile and flame thrower fuel tank left inside the Delta Green van, which is itself now on fire, explodes. Eric and the paramedics are sent flying as the house is utterly destroyed; as the fire trucks and ambulances turn up the last thing Eric sees before falling unconscious is the extremely odd sight of a neighbours’ illuminated lounge and the family inside who appear to be utterly oblivious to the apocalyptic devastation occurring outside.

Evelyn lands hard onto a stone floor. Dazed and confused she picks herself up and peers at her strange surroundings in amazement. She is in a spacious oval room with a white marble floor, black gneiss walls and burning torches. She listens cautiously but hears nothing. She ventures through the dark open doorway before her and finds herself now in a circular courtyard with a large spiral of stone steps ascending upwards and disappearing into the ceiling; opposite is another dark archway. Listening to her instincts she decides to move through the next archway and discovers what appears to be a lobby, possessing a large stone statue on a pedestal with its back to her, and massive wooden doors complete with more strange Mycenaean patterns and symbols. Very cautious, her nerves on edge, Evelyn backs away and decides that the only option is to go up the steps to the floor above. A minute later and she is surrounded by a ring of identical archways, wall hangings with familiarly strange symbols, more steps leading upwards and a low banister. After weighing up the limited options available to her she decides to enter one of the archways and duly discovers what appears to be a dormitory complete with three vaguely Mediterranean-looking bald men. The eldest of the men tries to speak to Evelyn but she understands nothing that he says and backs away in fear, back out onto the second floor landing. The older man follows her out and calls across the hall; a few seconds later another man appears in a doorway wearing armour and holding a sword – the new man utters something to Evelyn who responds by firing a shot into the ceiling. Her actions sends both men scuttling away but an instant later another man, looking like a guard appear, brandishing an awfully familiar stone flute which he points at the startled FBI agent. Evelyn turns and flees up the next flight of stairs in terror.